'COVID appropriate behaviour not being followed in 50 most-affected districts'

Central teams have reported nonadherence of COVID19 appropriate behaviour in almost all of the 50 mostaffected districts in Maharashtra Chhattisgarh and Punjab the Union health ministry said advising the states to more strictly enforce norms to prevent spread of the coronavirusOn the basis of feedback from the teams the ministry has written to the states highlighting the areas of concern including suboptimal containment operations and contact tracing skewed testing and shortage of health workers Authorities need to work in these areas it saidOf the 50 districts most affected by COVID19 30 are in Maharashtra 11 in Chhattisgarh and nine in Punjab it saidIn a letter to the states Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said the Centre has also taken note of issues related to vaccine availability and required action to augment supplies will be taken based on available stockHe said a brief summary of key performance indicators related to testing hospital infrastructure and vaccination as reported by the teams has been shared for suitable corrective actions by state or district administrationsThirty central teams have been deployed for the mostaffected districts in Maharashtra Bhushan saidThe ministry has written to the state highlighting that containment operations were found to be suboptimal in Satara Sangli and Aurangabad districts with less than satisfactory perimeter control and lack of active surveillance for influenza like illness casesSurveillance and contact tracing were suboptimal in Buldhana Satara Aurgangabad and Nanded mostly due to limited manpower Bhushan said in a letter to the Maharashtra health secretary on SaturdayIn Bhandara district most cases are being reported from outside containment zones This requires increasing the area of such zones or notifying new ones the letter saidTesting capacity in Satara Bhandara Palghar Amravwati Jalna and Latur is already overwhelmed resulting in delay in test results it saidTeams from Nanded and Buldana have reported very skewed RTPCR and rapid antigen testing ratio Community resistance to COVID testing has been reported from Bhandara the letter saidIt said a large percentage of COVID19 patients are under home isolation in Bhandara and Satara This requires rigorous follow up to minimise mortality and it is not happening the letter saidlt was observed that delayed reporting by patients to definitive treatment centres in Satara is leading to large number of deaths within first 72 hours of hospital admission it saidOccupancy rates of available hospital bed capacity are very high in Ahmednagar Aurangabad Nagpur and Nandurbar while medical oxygen supply was found to be an issue in Bhandara Palghar Osmanabad and PuneMalfunctioning of ventilators was reported from Satara and Latur and acute shortage of health workers from some other districts the ministry saidIt suggested expediting rostering of health workers and hiring of contractual health workers Adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour was found to be lacking by almost all central teams that visited the districts This would require greater enforcement effort the ministry saidFor Chhattisgarh the team from Raipur and Jashpur districts reported lack of perimeter control in containment zonesThere appears to be no restriction on movement of people inside containment zones Hence containment zones including microcontainment zones need to be strictly implemented a letter addressed to the states additional chief secretary health saidContact tracing needs to be reinforced in Korba Resistance even attacks on health workers to containment activities and testing was reported from Dhaneli in Raipur This needs to be addressed it saidLack or shortage of RTPCR testing facilities was reported from some districtsThe ministry suggested the state to deploy mobile labs for RTPCR testingAmbulance services also need to be strengthened in Durg and teams have noted that hospital bed occupancy rates are high in Balod Raipur Durg and Mahasamund it saidDistrict administrations need to ramp up hospital infrastructure and other logistic requirement to meet demand arising from surge in COVID19 cases Shortage of Remdesivir and low molecular weight Heparin needs urgent attention in Korba the ministry saidLimited oxygen availability and oxygen wastage were reported from Raipur and shortage of health workers from few districtsThere appears to be a need for refresher training of surveillance teams and vaccinators in Balod and Korba districts respectively it saidOvercrowding and no physical distancing was observed at a vaccination centre in Rajnandangaon the ministry saidIn Punjab there is a need to enhance focus on contact tracing in Patiala and LudhianaContact tracing and surveillance in SAS Nagar are being hampered due to shortage of manpower and additional workforce must be deployed Bhushan said in his letter to the Punjab health secretaryLow rates of testing were reported from Patiala and there is no RTPCR testing lab in Rupnagar These need to be addressed the letter saidThere is no dedicated COVID hospital in SAS Nagar and Rupnagar and patients are being referred to neighbouring districts or Chandigarh it saidHospital bed occupancy rates in some districts are high and arrangements must be made by authorities to deal with surge in cases the letter saidTeams have reported issues with procurement of ventilators in SBS Nagar ln Rupnagar though ventilators are available they are not being optimally used due to shortage of workforce particularly doctors and nursesContractual hiring of health workers can address the problem the letter saidShortage in workforce has been reported from Patiala SAS Nagar and Rupnagar alsoPatiala and Ludhiana have reported slow pace of COVID vaccination among people above 45 years with comorbidities and those above 60 years it saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness 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